


What's New Pussycat?

by fortunehasgivenup



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Canon Rio, Cat, Developing Relationship, Domestic, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff, Minor Violence, Non-Canon Beth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:08:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22776895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunehasgivenup/pseuds/fortunehasgivenup
Summary: There's a cat that won't stop breaking into Rio's apartment, leaving fur all over all everything, and his new next door neighbour dresses like Miss Frizzle. Probably unrelated, right?Single again for the first time in years, Beth has a new apartment and is trying to get back out there, but all of her dates just end with her going home to cuddle with Mr. Whiskers.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Comments: 24
Kudos: 326





	What's New Pussycat?

**Author's Note:**

> They're both younger than they are in the show and are the same age (early 30s). Rio does the same work he does in canon, but Beth is a teacher.

_Rio_

There’s a cat sitting on Rio’s kitchen counter.

“So you’re the little bandit that keeps breaking in, huh?” Rio says, walking slowly towards the thing. It’s fluffy as hell, no wonder it always left hair behind.

And paw prints in the butter one time.

A ripped up roll of paper towels another.

The cat meows, rolling its head and stretching. But it doesn’t move away from Rio as he slowly reaches out to pet it. It’s someone’s cat. It’s gotta be. The fur’s too nice for it to be any other kind of way.

“You’re soft as fuck,” Rio tells the cat, scratching its head and listening to its loud purr. “But you’re a pain in the ass, you know that right?”

The cat meows and starts to lick its paw, ignoring Rio.

“You got a name?” He feels for a collar, but there isn’t one.

He sighs, looking at the cat. “How are you even getting in?” he asks, but the cat just stretches and hops off the counter to make its way to the couch and curls into a little ball there.

When he comes back from the bathroom a few minutes later though, it’s gone, just leaving behind a whole bunch of fur.

———————————————————

“You got a kitty!”

Rio is left standing in the doorway, holding Marcus’ Kylo Ren backpack (and should he be worried that Marcus is wearing the merch of a guy who killed his dad?) while he runs off to throw himself to the ground in front of the couch where the cat is sitting. After breaking in. Again.

“Shoes,” is all he says, but Marcus ignores him, holding out his hand for the cat to sniff. “And the cat’s not mine.”

“Are you watching him for a friend?” Marcus asks, stroking the cat’s sleek fur. “You’re so pretty,” he coos at the little beast.

“He keeps breaking in,” Rio admits.

Marcus tilts his head back. “Can we keep him?” He looks so excited, it’s painful to deny him, but Rio shakes his head.

“He belongs to somebody,” he tells Marcus gently. “He’s being taken care of, I just don’t know who he belongs to. He seems to like my apartment though. So he’s a visitor.”

Marcus looks back at the cat. “If you ever want to run away,” he tells the cat, “you can stay with me and my dad.”

Rio has to smile at that, brushing Marcus’ hair back. “Now how about dinner?”

Despite his best efforts to convince Marcus that they can’t name the cat, that it must already have a name, Marcus inevitably dubs it Fluffy.

“Like in Harry Potter, dad!”

“That was a dog,” Rio reminds Marcus as he puts him to bed. The cat has disappeared again, leaving Marcus a bit sad. “And it had three heads.”

“Yeah, but he’s so fluffy,” Marcus argues. “We have to call him something.”

Rio sighs and lets Marcus call the cat Fluffy.

———————————————————

He comes home a couple days later and finally sees who it is that moved into the unit next to his.

“Annie, French fries do not count as a serving of vegetables,” a young woman is saying into her phone as she leaves unit 31. “You’re going to die of malnutrition!”

It takes Rio a second to comprehend the mixed signals his brain is getting. She’s petite, but she’s curvy exactly where Rio likes curves. Her light red hair is pinned back by two matching braids that meet at the back in a little bun. That’s fine. The confusion mostly comes from the outfit.

She’s wearing what his mom would probably refer to as slacks - shapeless and bland, especially in contrast to the sweater she’s wearing. It’s the weather system. At least, the back is.

Rio squints as she locks her door, blinking as he realizes that the clouds are actually textured and stick out from the rest of the sweater. The lightning has metallic thread worked into it. She’s also got one of those big bags that women carry that seem to connect to another dimension that allow them to carry a full first aid kit, snacks, a sweater, books, journals, and god knows what else. He’s surprised it doesn’t weigh her down.

Then she’s turning towards him and freezing in place. Rio can hear a tinny voice coming through the phone speaker, but he just nods, giving her a wide berth as he goes to his own apartment.

“No, adding ketchup doesn’t make it better,” she says, exasperated, walking down the hall to the stairwell. Her footsteps get quieter, then he can’t hear her anymore.

He stands there for a moment, staring after his neighbour as he tries to figure out how to describe her.

He opens his door and is met by the cat, sweeping his tail back and forth across the floor like he’s wondering what took Rio so long to come in.

Rio glares at it.

———————————————————

He sees her a few more times. One day, she’s wearing a dress with a dinosaur print. Another, she’s carrying what looks like a model volcano. Rio starts to call her Miss Frizzle in his head.

The cat keeps showing up in his apartment. Rio’s taken to keeping treats around after Marcus asked. If Rio also found it amusing to hold the treat above the cat’s head, making it go up on its hind legs to take it from him, no one has to know.

It changes in mid October.

“Back again, little bandit?” Rio drawls when the cat’s head pokes up from the foot of his bed. The cat meows, disappears, then leaps up.

Rio sighs, but lets it happen, watching the cat as he walks up the length of the bed until he can press up against Rio’s side.

Laughing, Rio scratches the cat, then freezes. There’s a collar. He feels around for the tag and squints to read it in the low light.

Mr. Whiskers.

“Your name is Mr. Whiskers?” Rio says aloud. The cat - Mr. Whiskers - meows. “Man, that sucks for you.”

The other side has an address. His address, except for one difference. Unit 31 instead of 32.

The stacked teacher next door. The one with a balcony connected to his.

“So that’s how you’ve been getting in, huh,” he says.

“Meow,” says Mr. Whiskers.

Rio narrows his eyes at the cat. “We’re gonna have to do something about that.”

Mr. Whiskers tilts his head, then sets it down on his front paws and goes to sleep.

But now Rio’s a man on a mission. He gets out of bed carefully, going to the kitchen where he’s got a pad of paper he mostly uses for grocery lists.

He writes on the paper in big letters, “I have your cat. - 32,” then leaves his apartment and tacks it to the door of #31.

———————————————————

_Beth_

Another dud. Beth sighs as she climbs the stairs to the third floor. Why did she keep doing this to herself? She just needs to admit that she’s going to be a perpetual loner with no one but her friends and Mr. Whiskers in her life. And how sad was that?

She pulls open the door on her floor and takes off her heels to walk the rest of the way to her apartment. Geoff hadn’t even been worth the pain of wearing them. She should have worn socks and sandals or something.

Beth’s already planning her pity party - a beer, episodes of Great British Bake Off, and hopefully a cuddle session with Mr. Whiskers, if he’s willing - when she notices something on her door.

It’s a Saturday, Beth thinks. So it’s not the super, unless there’s been an emergency. But as she gets closer to her door, she starts to be able to make out the message.

I HAVE YOUR CAT.  
-32

Beth’s eyes widen and she scrambles to get her keys out and her door open, pulling the note off her door as she does.

“Mr. Whiskers?” Beth calls out as soon as she’s inside, dropping her shoes and running to get the bag of treats. She shakes it as she opens the top. It’s guaranteed to get him out of whatever hidey hole he’s found.

But nothing.

She goes back to her door and yanks it open, stomping over to the neighbouring unit. She bangs her fist on the door, waits approximately four seconds, then bangs again.

It’s not till the door’s opening that Beth realizes that this is where Mr. All In Black lives. And then she’s too angry to feel self-conscious about maybe not looking her best.

“Give me back my cat!” she hisses.

He crosses his arms over his chest. “No.”

Beth gasps. “Give him back! How did you even get him? Did you break into my apartment?”

She should have grabbed her phone from her purse, she thinks too late. What if he’s trying to lure her into his apartment so he can murder her?

He snorts. “Me breaking into your place? More like your cat can’t keep his little paws to himself. He’s been breaking in for over a month, getting fur all over.”

Beth stops, blinks at him. “What?”

“He’s been coming in through the balcony, I think.”

Beth shakes off her surprise. “I don’t care. Just give me my cat back.”

“No.”

At this point, Beth realizes that she doesn’t even see Mr. Whiskers. He hasn’t come to the door. “Where is he?” She shoves into his apartment, although considering the muscles that she comes into contact as she does, he’s more than capable of keeping her out if he really wants to.

“I’m having a shitty night,” she snaps at him. “I just had an abysmal date. I just want to have a beer, watch some TV, and pet my damn cat. So give him back.”

“Why?” the guy retorts. “He seems to like me better.”

Beth moves deeper into the apartment, her head on a swivel as she does. She passes an open door and glances inside. He’s sitting there, the little traitor, in the middle of this guy’s bed, head lifted like he’s just woken up from a nap.

She stares at him, even as she breathes a sigh of relief. Mr. Whiskers meows, then settles his head back down on his paws.

“See?”

She turns her head to look at her neighbour, who looks way too smug.

“Also,” he says, “no one over the age of six names their cat Mr. Whiskers. You clearly ain’t six years old,” his eyes go up and down her body in a way that is way too hot for Beth to think about right now.

She flushes instead at the insinuation that she’s childish. “Why do you care?”

“Call me curious,” he leans against the wall.

Beth half hears Mr. Whiskers meowing at her from the bed, but she’s caught up in this now. “God, you are such a jerk! My cat’s name is none of your business! My cat is none of your business. You don’t need to worry about him breaking in anymore because I’m going to make sure he can’t get out.”

He laughs. “Oh yeah? Gonna replace the sliding door yourself?”

“If I have to!” Well, she’ll get Stan to help.

“I’d love to see that, sweetheart,” he drawls, giving her another look up and down. Beth’s skin prickles like it’s his hands that are doing the exploring. Or maybe his lips, tongue. Jesus Beth, she scolds herself. Then she realizes that she’s been quiet for too long and now he’s smiling way too smugly at her.

“Fuck you!” Beth turns away from him to grab Mr. Whiskers and leave, but she takes a step towards the bed and realizes that he’s not there anymore. “Where’d he go?”

“Huh?”

“Where’d Mr. Whiskers go?” Beth asks, moving to look at the rest of the bedroom.

“Shit,” he curses. “I left the front door open.”

Beth gasps and runs after him. The stairwell door doesn’t close fully sometimes and if Mr. Whiskers gets into the stairs, who knows where he’d end up.

“This is your fault!” Beth tells her neighbour.

“Oh, is it?” He sounds unimpressed. “Shit, where’d he go?” His head goes back and forth to look at either end of the hall. “Your door is still open too.”

He doesn’t even pause before he walks right into her apartment and Beth follows. “Mr. Whiskers!” she calls. She doesn’t see him anywhere. He’s not on the couch or bed, at his bowl or litter box. Her neighbour follows her through her apartment and Beth’s starting to feel frantic enough that she doesn’t chase him off.

“Oh my god,” she starts to mutter. “Oh my god, he got out. He’s out there all alone.”

“Hey, it’s gonna be fine,” her neighbour tells her. “We’re gonna find him.”

“No we aren’t!” Beth says, pitch rising. “He’s literally the only good thing that I have left of the last seven years of my life and now he’s just gone! Oh Beth, how are you? I’m great! Everyone I love is just leaving me, but it’s totally fine! I’m going to die alone, but how are you?”

She’s moving through the kitchen, neighbour still behind her, when a movement out of the corner of her eye makes her look towards the fridge.

She doesn’t even have a chance to register what she’s seeing before Mr. Whiskers makes a flying leap off the top of the fridge.

“Shit!” her neighbour curses, but steps into his path and catches him in his arms.

Beth just starts to cry.

———————————————————

_Rio_

Rio stares at the woman, who just burst into tears and is now wrapping her arms around him and the cat.

“I thought you’d run away,” she says.

He carefully takes one arm out from under the cat to awkwardly pat her arm. “It’s okay, he didn’t go anywhere.”

She wipes at her eyes. “He…he said we weren’t ready for kids so he got me a cat.”

“Wait, what?”

“God, and we stayed together for another three years!” She’s given up on wiping her eyes, although the cat has twisted in his hold to lick her face. “I thought I’d lost you,” she tells the cat.

Rio has no idea what he should be doing. Does she need a hug? Does he push the cat at her and bolt?

What he isn’t expecting is for her to grab his face and pull him down for a kiss. He’s shocked enough that he doesn’t immediately kiss her back.

She pulls away.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have -“

Rio kisses her quiet. She’s got soft lips that part for his tongue. He’s about to escalate the kiss but the cat starts to lick the underside of his jaw. If her giggle is anything to go by, it did it to her too.

“I’m Beth,” she says, looking up at him, still a little glassy-eyed.

“Rio.” He swallows.

“I let my first graders name him.”

There’s a moment of confusion while he figures out what she means, then he looks down at the cat who is…asleep in his grip. He turns towards the couch so he can set it - Mr. Whiskers - down.

“I have a five year old son that I’ve got partial custody of,” he replies.

Beth just nods.

“So,” Rio says, “want some company while you have that beer?”

She laughs.

———————————————————

_Beth_

Apparently Beth should have been dating single dads the whole time. In addition to being hot as hell, Rio’s smart, far more perceptive than any one human should be.

That first night, they sit together and share beers while they watch Bake Off, which Rio has never seen. She learns that his son is named Marcus, that his job is a touchy subject, and that Mr. Whiskers has been getting treats over at his place for the past month.

“He isn’t supposed to have that many treats!” she scolds him. “I’ve been cutting him off. No wonder he’s not losing any weight and why he loves going to your place.”

Rio looks at her. “You got your cat on a diet?”

Beth glares at him. “The vet said that he was getting a little too overweight.”

Rio laughs.

“It isn’t funny, Rio,” Beth snaps. “He could develop health problems!”

She learns that Rio likes to do things like kiss her quiet, that his hands feel even better on her than she’d imagined, and that despite his slightly dick-ish behaviour, he’s pretty sweet.

“Gotta take you out first,” he says when he stops her from sliding her hand up his shirt.

He takes her on the strangest date that she’s ever been on. She can also safely call it the best, even before he takes her back to his place and shows her exactly what he can give her.

And Beth’s eager to pay it back in kind. She drags Rio to the best bakeries around the city, even the one in her old neighbourhood that takes the better part of an hour to get to. She likes to snuggle up next to him on the couch, start kissing his neck softly, still watching TV or a movie or something else that neither of them are paying attention to. Likes how he feels in her hand, how he reacts to her. The sounds he makes when she takes him in her mouth. The smile he gives her when he sees her in one of her themed sweaters. She likes all of it.

———————————————————

_Rio_

Rio learns quickly that Mr. Whiskers is an absolute fucking cock block.

Beth’s riding Rio, working herself on his cock as he palms her breasts and stares up at her, encouraging her.

“C’mon,” he demands, “like that, baby. Get yourself there.”

She’s letting out little sobs each time she sinks down on him.

“So close,” he says. Beth nods. She keeps rubbing her clit with the hand that’s not propping her up. She nearly screams with her orgasm when it comes, her head falling back. Rio takes over, keeping her moving.

He’s so close, he can practically taste it in the back of his throat. She’s so hot around him, wet and soft and -

“Meow.” Rio turns his head to see Mr. Whiskers sitting on the nightstand, staring at them.

“Fuck,” Rio curses, practically throwing Beth off of him.

She moans, still shaking with the aftershocks. “What?” She sets her hand on his chest and pushes herself up to look down at him, but Mr. Whiskers has already decided that this means Rio’s chest is fair game, so he jumps, landing squarely on Rio’s belly and driving the breath out of him.

He grunts and scrambles to grab some bedding to cover up before the little mischief maker decides to walk over his dick.

Beth gasps and wiggles below the sheet as well, plucking Mr. Whiskers off of his chest, but instead of putting him on the ground or making some kind of move to take him out of the room, she wraps her arms around him and starts to coo. “Oh you silly baby. What are you doing?”

“Seriously?” Rio demands.

Beth looks at him, stroking Mr. Whiskers’ back as the cat starts to purr loud enough to be mistaken for a small jet. “Huh?”

He looks down at where he’s tenting the sheet.

“Ohhhh,” Beth says. Before she can do anything else, Rio gets out of bed and stomps over to the bathroom. He shuts the door, takes off the condom and throws it out. Not wanting a repeat, he starts to jerk off. He just wants to come.

A second later, the door opens again, then quickly shuts. Beth presses herself against his back.

“Jealous?” she teases.

Rio shakes his head. “Just need to -“

She hums, running her hands over his ass. “Want to come on me?” she offers like she’s asking if he wants a glass of water. When he nods, she steps back so he can turn. “Where?” She touches his chest in that slightly reverent way that she does sometimes.

“Your ass,” he says.

There’s no pushback, even though he’s kind of expecting it. Beth likes to push. Instead, she moves to the wall and bends forward so he’s staring at the expanse of her back and the arch of her hips, which she wiggles.

“Come on, big boy,” she tells him over her shoulder.

Rio comes on the small of her back with a grunt, stroking himself through it. When he’s finished, he puts his hands out, grips her waist and spans his fingers so that he can rub his thumbs through the pool of cum. Beth’s breathing hitches and she arches her back a little more. Rio’s seconds away from sliding those fingers down to get her off again when there’s scratching on the door, followed by several loud meows.

Beth giggles. Rio groans and drops his head down to rest between her shoulder blades. “At least he let you finish this time?” she says.

Rio kisses her spine as he starts to laugh too.

———————————————————

_Beth_

Beth doesn’t think of herself as a small person. She’s taller than Annie and her sister’s got a more delicate bone structure. Add in the hips and boobs plus her general life philosophy that she’s not going to obsess over food, she isn’t tiny.

At least, she’s not until she starts dating Rio. In theory, he’s not as big as Dean - a little shorter and leaner - but he’s got this presence. (And dick, but that’s not the point.) He’ll come up behind her when she’s standing at the kitchen counter chopping veggies and he’ll put those big hands of his on the flare of her ass and just start rubbing, massaging. He’ll get his thumbs into the small of her back while the rest of his hand stretches out and it’s like…she feels dainty with him.

It doesn’t hurt that he’s always teasing her about things like having a kitchen stool to reach the highest shelf of the built-in units. He takes her to a bar where they play pool and he looks at her hand on the pool cue, how her fingers just touch near the base of it. His eyes go hot and he bends to whisper in her ear as he helps her line up the shot. “Just like on my cock, baby,” he murmurs, “using both hands.” She shoves her ass back to knock him away, but it has the opposite effect. They wind up leaving early and he drags her to his place so they won’t get interrupted.

It’s not just her though. She watches him pick up Marcus - and the fact that he’s a dad, fuck if it doesn’t make him forty times hotter - and carry him around like he doesn’t weigh any more than Mr. Whiskers.

Or he’ll be sitting on the couch and reading with Mr. Whiskers on his lap. Mr. Whiskers purring as Rio pets him absentmindedly, palm practically swallowing up his head.

One morning she wakes up and he’s wrapped around her, cupping a breast in his hand. And it _fits_. She remembers something that one of the girls had said back in high school when she was pretending that she hadn’t seen Beth nearby. “Everyone knows that more than a handful is just a waste,” Ginnifer had said with a laugh. Then she’d flipped her ponytail and met Beth’s eye, gave her an evaluating look, and smirked.

Beth knows that it isn’t true. But now Rio’s hand is engulfing her and she can’t help but think, “Fuck you, Ginnifer Goodman.” Rio squeezes his hand and hums.

“I think I like waking up like this,” he says.

“Hmm?” Beth turns her head a little.

He lifts his head to kiss her temple, then drops his head back on the pillow, squeezing again. “Cuddling with a handful of titty.”

“What?” Beth chokes out.

“You heard what I said,” he responds. He shifts, rubbing his morning wood against her ass.

She cants her hips so that he’s closer to her cunt and he chuckles. “That get you going?”

“You get me going,” she admits.

“Do I?” his voice is still a little rough with sleep. “Put me in you.”

Beth reaches down so that she can line him up, then pushes back against him. She moans as she takes him, not quite as wet as she needs to be, but it feels so good just this side of too much. He has to work his length in.

She supposes they’ve both got more than a handful.

———————————————————

_Rio_

Marcus is, as expected, obsessed with Mr. Whiskers. He thinks the cat is the greatest thing ever. Every picture that he draws features Mr. Whiskers. He’ll pick up the cat and carry him around the apartment even though they’re probably the same height when Mr. Whiskers stretches out. It looks ridiculous - Marcus walking around with an armload of fluff.

“Marcus,” Rio says the first time he does it, but Beth stops him.

“If Mr. Whiskers didn’t like it, we would know,” she tells him. “Let them be.”

The cat loves it. He’s lazy as hell and enjoys the attention.

Rio’s less enthused, especially when he discovers that Marcus is letting the damn thing sleep in his bed.

“Marcus,” he says.

His son just looks up at him with those wide brown eyes that Rio’s bad at saying no to. Rio crouches so that they can speak to each other face to face.

“The cat can’t sleep in the bed.”

“But he gets cold!” Marcus insists.

“No, he doesn’t,” Rio says, reaching out to touch Marcus’ cheek.

Marcus sniffs. “He does! And then he meows, but it’s so sad.” Rio knows exactly what noise Marcus is talking about. It’s the one that makes him twitch, ready to do what the cat wants. It makes Beth melt. Mr. Whiskers knows it, the manipulative little bastard.

Rio gets used to finding Mr. Whiskers in whichever apartment he goes to - sometimes his own, sometimes Beth’s. The cat seems entirely disinterested in the prospect of going outside, so Rio thinks he can be forgiven for not expecting it when Mr. Whiskers bolts.

He’s doing laundry in his apartment and watching TV in Beth’s because she’s somehow managed to find the ugliest but most comfortable couch in the world. It looks like something his grandmother would have had in the 80s.

His timer goes off to switch his clothes to the dryer, so he gets off the couch. He opens the door right as something happens on the TV. He turns his head back to the screen and nearly misses the streak of fur as it runs by his leg out into the hall.

“Fuck!” Rio gives chase. Mr. Whiskers is just about to squeeze into the gap where the stairwell door is propped open like some ridiculous fucking fire hazard when he snatches the cat up. Mr. Whiskers immediately starts to yowl and squirm. “Seriously?” he hisses at the cat.

It’s at that moment that the stairwell door opens to reveal Beth.

She freezes at the sight of them. And it’s got to be a sight. Rio’s shirtless, wearing a pair of loose sweats, clutching a giant fur ball of a cat and glowering.

“He tried to run,” Rio informs her. “I caught him before he could get into the stairwell.”

Beth smiles up at him like he just told her that he cleaned the apartment, made dinner, and had bought her a supply of tacky themed sweaters.

“You’re such a good cat daddy,” Beth tells him as she scratches Mr. Whiskers’ head as the cat meows in contentment, like he hadn’t just made a run for the outside world that would have gotten Rio murdered.

Rio stares down at the top of her head. “Elizabeth,” he says, “you do remember that I have an actual child, right?”

She tilts her head back and pouts. But her expression quickly shifts. She bites her lip and goes up on her toes to pull his head down to kiss him.

“Thank you for running out of the apartment half naked to get my cat,” she tells him. “Want me to do that thing with my mouth?”

He draws in a sharp breath. “Fuck yes.”

He turns and leads the way back to Beth’s apartment, door still open. He drops Mr. Whiskers on the couch as she shuts the door behind them and drags Beth to the bedroom, where she quickly drops to her knees and frees him from his sweats.

As she takes him in her mouth, his head thumps against the door as he utters a quiet moan.

The next time that Marcus comes over after Mr. Whiskers’ escape attempt, he runs over to the cat and hoists him up. “You can’t run away,” he scolds. “That would make Miss Elizabeth really sad and then that would make my Daddy sad.”

Rio watches and listens as Marcus reads him the riot act, smiling.

“Don’t think he’ll try that again,” he comments when Marcus is done.

Beth is suspiciously red-eyed. “Would it make you sad if I was sad?” she asks.

Rio softens, leaning down to kiss the corner of her mouth. “Yeah, it would.”

She wraps her arms around him and they stand like that in the kitchen for a while.

———————————————————

_Beth_

She wakes up to Mr. Whiskers yowling and jumping on her.

Groaning, she reaches out and tries to capture him in her arms, but he just hisses.

Something’s wrong.

Rolling over, she turns on the bedside lamp in time to see Mr. Whiskers dash out the sliding door and -

“Fuck,” Beth mutters. She thought they’d fixed that.

But something had been wrong with the way that the cat reacted. He’d never done that before. Something about it has Beth getting out of bed and grabbing a robe. Mr. Whiskers returns as she’s tying it at her waist and bumps into her legs a couple of times, meowing.

“What’s wrong?” she asks the cat. She’s not expecting an answer, he’s a cat after all, but she catches sight of a dark patch on Mr. Whiskers’ side.

Bending down, Beth touches it and when she brings her hand away, she knows it’s blood.

“Rio.”

She’s up and out of the apartment, letting herself into number 32, faster than she’s ever moved before.

“Rio?” she calls out. It’s not his days with Marcus, so she’s not worried about waking him. And if she’s wrong, she’ll take Rio’s teasing at her coming over all frantic and worked up.

She finds him in the bathroom, scrubbing blood out from underneath his fingernails.

He looks up and catches her eye in the mirror.

Beth swallows. “What happened?”

“Don’t matter,” he says brusquely.

Scowling, Beth joins him at the sink. “It does if this blood is yours,” she snaps. There’s some on his shoulder.

“Just a bit of it,” he admits, gesturing towards his side. “Already stopped bleedin’ though. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“Don’t have to -“ Beth tugs at the hem of the shirt. “Off.”

To her surprise, he obeys. He’s right, it has stopped bleeding, but it still looks ugly.

“Did someone stab you?” Beth asks, looking at the wound and figuring out the best way to clean it.

“No,” Rio replies. “It was more of a slash.”

Something about the way that he says it startles a laugh out of her. Shaking her head, she picks up a washcloth and wets it.

“You’re cleaning the cat,” she tells him. It’s the least he can do for waking her up and freaking her out like this.

———————————————————

_Rio_

It happens sooner rather than later, Beth finding out about what he does for a living. Rio’s nearly offended when she just takes it in stride without missing a step.

When she’s done helping him clean up, Rio grabs her hand. He looks her square in the eye, trying to ask her what he can’t get out of his mouth. _We good?_

“You wouldn’t do things that put Marcus in danger,” she says. “I trust you.”

And what’s he supposed to say to that - don’t?

No. Instead, he cups the back of her neck and pulls her in for a kiss that quickly turns into her working his pants down and him shoving her pajamas off and fucking her against the sink until they’re both sweaty and sated.

“I love you,” she says, putting her hand on his cheek.

Rio smiles and presses his forehead to hers.

Later, when he’s trying to wash Mr. Whiskers’ fur, he realizes that she might be getting a little payback because the cat hisses and meows like Rio’s trying to kill him, not sponge off dried blood.

He gets a couple of scratches for his trouble and even though he can’t prove it, he’s pretty sure that Mr. Whiskers rips up a roll of toilet paper the next day in retaliation.

But Beth helps him clean up, so maybe it’s not so bad.

———————————————————

_Beth_

With her in the know, Rio starts to take her to things from time to time. Like this party one of his boys is hosting to celebrate his birthday. Rio had rolled his eyes at the idea of a guy in his 20s having a birthday party, but it’s been booze and half decent food with people that he actually likes, so he’s not too mad, no matter what he says. Beth can tell the difference by now.

He’s talking to Cisco when Beth goes over to him and ducks under his arm.

“Elizabeth,” he says half-heartedly as she takes his phone from his pocket and hands it to him to unlock, “what are you -“

She scowls. “My phone is dead.”

He sighs, but unlocks it. “And what do you need it for?”

“You’ve got pictures of the cat,” Beth tells him, spinning away from him to walk back to one of the new guys - Eddie, flicking through his photos. He’s got two dogs and showed her the photos of them already. She opens one she sent to Rio the other day, smiling as she looks at the rest of the photos in the folder, all of Mr. Whiskers.

She turns the phone towards Eddie. “That’s Mr. Whiskers.”

He blinks, lowers his head, looks at her, then the phone. “Niiiiice.”

There’s something a little lascivious about the way that he says it that makes Beth pause. He grins at her.

He reaches up and taps the photo. Beth looks where he’s pointing - the mirror on her bedroom wall. It’s then that she realizes that the photo shows a whole lot more of her than she’d thought. Beth gasps, yanks the phone away from Eddie. She flips through the pictures that she’s sent Rio and realizes, with slowly dawning horror, that way more of her is in them than she thought.

“Excuse me,” she says through gritted teeth, then makes her way back to Rio.

He finishes what he’s saying to Cisco before Beth tugs on his arm to draw his attention to her.

“You kept those photos because you could see me naked in them!” Beth hisses at Rio.

He just looks over at her. “Yeah. That a surprise?”

“Yes!”

Rio keeps staring at her. “Wait,” he says slowly, “you didn’t know that I could see you in those?”

Beth’s cheeks heat up as his lips slowly pull into a smile.

“Oh baby,” he coos at her, “that’s just too good.”

His hands are on her hips and then sliding down into the back pockets of her jeans to pull her up against him.

“Oh hush,” Beth pushes at him, but she’s not really trying to get away. If anything, she wants to be closer to that hot look in Rio’s eyes. Her breath catches when she realizes that with him leaning against the table and his hands holding her tightly to him, he’s practically rubbing her against his cock.

“Wanna get out of here?” he suggests, not bothering to lower his voice.

Beth scowls. “You’re the worst.”

He laughs. “If you’re still capable of saying that in ten minutes, I might actually believe you.”

For the record, she isn’t.

———————————————————

_Rio_

Gia has to head out of town for a couple of weeks when her sister gets into a car accident and Rio finds out the difference that being a full time parent makes. It doesn’t help that after the accident, Marcus starts to have bad dreams about him and Gia, even Beth.

“Come here, pop,” Rio says the second time that Marcus comes to the bedroom door in tears. The first time, it had been just him in bed, but this time, Beth’s with him.

When Marcus goes to her and climbs into her lap, cushioning his head on her chest, and sobbing quietly, it takes a minute for the shock to dissipate, leaving Rio feeling…hurt.

Beth is rubbing Marcus’ back and murmuring things to him that Rio can’t make out.

Eventually, he falls asleep. Rio goes to move him from Beth, but she shakes her head.

“He’s fine where he is,” she whispers.

Rio puts his hand on the back of Marcus’ head and smooths down his hair. Doesn’t notice Beth reaching out to him until her fingers touch his chin.

“I’m just softer,” she says. “That’s why he wanted a hug from me. He loves you, Rio.”

“I know,” he responds, a little gruffly. She smiles at him and rolls her eyes. “’Sides,” he says, “I like putting my head there too. Can’t fault him for that.”

“Rio!” she hisses, looking like she’s about to lecture him about something, only to relax again when Marcus makes a little snoring noise.

He’s about to say something else when a small weight lands on his stomach and meows. Rio reaches down to hold Mr. Whiskers in place before he can try to climb onto Rio’s face.

Beth gives him a smug little grin and shuts her eyes. “Looks like we traded.”

Rio just laughs, but lets Mr. Whiskers fall asleep on his chest.

In the morning, Beth is extra cautious with Marcus and Rio watches, his heart feeling like it might be a little too big for his chest. She’s perfect. He decided that ages ago, but watching her take care of his son just does something to him.

She kisses Marcus’ head, then joins him in the kitchen to rinse some dishes.

“Morning,” he says to her.

Beth tilts her head back for a kiss, which he gives.

“Mr. Whiskers crush you last night?” she asks.

“Nah,” he replies, gathering her up in his arms. Rio kisses the side of Beth’s neck. “Makes me wish I was spending time with a different pussy though,” he says. He hears a gasp and he starts to smile before he realizes that she wasn’t the one who gasped.

“You’re getting another cat?” Marcus practically shouts. “Can I help pick? Did you find one already? I think we should get a girl cat so then Miss Elizabeth won’t be the only girl anymore.”

Beth turns in his arms, wide eyed. Whether it’s because of what Marcus overheard or what he’s saying, he’s not sure.

He makes a split second decision.

“We’re starting to talk about it, pop.”

It’s a mistake.

———————————————————

_Beth_

Ever since Rio said maybe to another cat, Marcus has been begging them to take him to the animal shelter.

“I’ll take him,” Beth volunteers when Marcus is in bed.

Rio gives her a look.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Rio puts his hands on her hips and pulls her close. “You take him, you’ll come home with three fucking cats.”

“No I won’t!” Beth insists.

“You will,” Rio says.

“Well, how about you come and meet us there to make sure that we don’t,” Beth suggests.

“Oh sure,” he mutters, “make me the bad guy.”

Beth pats his cheek. “You always are,” she teases, “daddy.”

Rio’s breath is harsh and before she can ask, he lifts his hips to rub against her.

“Oh,” Beth says, eyes wide. “ _Oh_.”

———————————————————

Beth and Marcus walk from the bus stop to the animal shelter. She adores his little kid enthusiasm. It’s similar to that of her students, but it’s a different side of it that she doesn’t normally get to see from them.

“And then me and Dad had to get pizza,” he finishes his story about the time Rio tried to recreate something his mother makes a lot.

Beth laughs. He and Rio are close. It’s quite possibly one of the sweetest things in the world to see the two of them with their heads bent over a Lego set or on the couch just talking.

“Are we gonna get a cat today?” Marcus asks.

Beth shrugs. “I’m not sure yet, honey.”

“I think Mr. Whiskers gets lonely where we’re not around,” he says. “If we get him a friend, then he wouldn’t be so lonely.”

“I think he mostly sleeps while we’re not around,” Beth tells him. “Sounds like a nice life, huh?”

Marcus smiles up at her, not trying to tug his hand out of hers or anything. “But he doesn’t get to go to the playground or school or the library.”

“That’s true,” Beth agrees. One day Marcus will realize the appeal of staying home and sleeping all the time.

Beth has been to this shelter a couple times, although she doesn’t know the volunteer that leads them in the cat room while explaining the rules to them.

Marcus stands by the door for a minute, looking in every direction, eyes wide. He’s overwhelmed by the choice and Beth is about to suggest that they make their way around the room when a little black kitten comes out from under the couch and climbs onto Marcus’ shoe.

He looks down at the cat, who’s looking up at him. The cat meows and Marcus melts.

———————————————————

Marcus is in love with the kitten, Beth can see it. He’s sitting on the floor by the couch in the cat room, stroking the cat’s side as she naps in his lap.

She checks her phone. Rio’s seen the photo that she sent him, but there’s no response while the two of them play with the kitten, who squeaks indignantly whenever they stop paying attention to her.

After a while, the door to the cat room opens and a familiar pair of denim clad legs steps in. Beth smiles up at Rio. He bends to kiss her quickly, before turning his attention to his son.

Rio sits next to Marcus and reaches over to run a finger over the kitten.

“Can we take her home?” Marcus asks quietly. “Please?”

Beth bites her lip. She’s already decided that the cat’s coming home with them. But she’s curious about what Rio will say.

Rio moves his hand to Marcus’ back. “A cat is a lot of responsibility, pop, and a kitten’s even more.”

Marcus nods. “I know. I help Miss Elizabeth with Mr. Whiskers.”

“Yeah, you do.” Rio rubs Marcus’ back. “So, what’s her name?”

Marcus’ head comes up. “We can take her home?”

“They’re already processing the adoption,” Rio tells him. “So, what’s her name?”

Marcus nearly throws himself at Rio, only held back by the kitten still in his lap. “Thank you!”

———————————————————

_Rio_

Marcus names the kitten Luna.

Mr. Whiskers isn’t pleased. When they bring the kitten home, he climbs up onto the fridge and won’t come down for ages, even when Beth offers him treats.

When Luna makes a little meep noise after he comes down, Mr. Whiskers hisses at her and starts to groom himself.

Rio picks up Mr. Whiskers and carries him away from the kitten. Setting him on the bed, he crouches down and stares the cat in the eye. “Don’t be mean,” he warns.

Mr. Whiskers eyes him with a hint of disdain. “Meow.”

“That’s what I thought,” Rio replies, straightening up and turning only to find Beth standing in the doorway.

“Are you -“

Rio shoves his hands in his pockets. “Am I what?”

“Talking to the cat?”

“Oh, like you don’t talk to him all the time,” Rio retorts.

“Yeah, but I’m not the one who insists that they don’t like the cat,” Beth says, pushing away from the door. “That’s you, Mr. Tough Guy.”

Rio shakes his head. “Tough Guy? Need I remind you that I let you paint my toenails last week?” Beth giggles. “More like Mr. Whiskers sheds all over everything, eats my food, and is real demanding when I’m trying to do other things.”

“And by other things, you mean me,” Beth says with a smile.

Rio chuckles. “Sometimes.”

There’s a small meow from near their feet and they both look down to see the kitten sitting there. Marcus has followed her to Rio’s room, but is hovering just outside. Luna bats Rio’s foot with her paw, then shoves her face up the opening of his jeans, tickling his ankle.

“Alright,” Rio sighs, bending to scoop Luna up in one hand, “let’s get you settled.”

———————————————————

“Stop picking on your little sister,” Rio tells Mr. Whiskers one morning.

The next afternoon, he picks up Luna to carry her around so she won’t scratch at his ankles while Mr. Whiskers follows them around, meowing pitifully.

“Ain’t it supposed to be cats and dogs that don’t get along?” he complains to Beth, who giggles. “Not cats and cats?”

“They’re adjusting pretty well,” she replies, spinning to face him as she undoes the back of her dress. This one is dinosaurs and he isn’t sure how to deal with the fact that it gets him a little hot to see her in those cheesy teacher outfits. She wiggles it off and he immediately remembers why.

His eyes focus on her breasts, which shake as she shimmies out of her dress. Her hand comes up and she snaps her fingers. “Earth to Rio,” she says. He raises his eyes to her face, but steps towards her and lowers his face until he can bury his face in her tits and then it’s all downhill from there. Not that he doesn’t enjoy it. He very much does. Beth too.

———————————————————

Rio leaves the bedroom to get a glass of water. Marcus is with his mom, so he doesn’t bother putting any clothing on, just walks down the hall and into the kitchen. On his way back to bed and Beth, he catches sight of a pile on the couch.

Frowning, he steps towards it. It takes a second to figure it out, but eventually he can make out what he’s seeing. It’s Mr. Whiskers and Luna curled up together on the couch.

He stares at them. Normally the two of them have this semi-antagonistic relationship where Mr. Whiskers ignores Luna and Luna runs around the apartment trying to get into everything until Rio or Beth catch up with her.

Mr. Whiskers’ eyes open a fraction to meet Rio’s. It’s like he’s saying, “So what?” Rio smiles and retreats to the bedroom.

“The cats are napping together on the couch,” he tells Beth.

She hums. “They do that all the time.”

He sits up. “What?”

She rolls over towards him, yawning. “They nap together all the time.”

“No they don’t,” Rio says.

Beth laughs, the sound soft and a little rough. “They only compete around you, honey.”

Rio shakes his head.

“It’s true,” Beth says, patting his stomach. “They’re total sweethearts until daddy’s around and they have to fight for your affection.”

Rio opens his mouth, then shuts it again. “Bullshit.”

“If you say so,” she mutters. “Now go to sleep.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, as always, to medievalraven and neveroffanon for being great betas. This was born of a bunch of random conversations with medievalraven in which we plotted out this whole thing. "Cuddling with a handful of titty" is from a tumblr post. The title is from What's New Pussycat? of course. If there's anything in here that needs to be warned for, please let me know.
> 
> For Mr. Whiskers, just imagine the fluffiest cat.


End file.
